Jurors May Deliberate in Baldwin Case Today

Actor Alec Baldwin could have taken legal, nonviolent actions to prevent a celebrity photographer from videotaping his family, but instead broke the law by breaking the man’s nose, a prosecutor said Wednesday in his closing argument in Baldwin’s misdemeanor battery trial.

Baldwin testified Tuesday that he was trying to protect his wife, actress Kim Basinger, and newborn daughter from photographer Alan Zanger.

“There are several precautions he could have taken,” such as covering his newborn daughter with a sheet and taking her inside, Deputy City Atty. Jeff Harkavy told a Van Nuys Municipal Court jury.

But Baldwin “was angry, he was upset, he was emotional and he was not going to be photographed, and he was not going to let Mr. Zanger interfere with his day,” the prosecutor charged.

Baldwin’s attorney, Charles English, contended outside the courtroom that Zanger engineered the confrontation, which happened on the day Baldwin and wife, actress Kim Basinger, brought home their newborn daughter. The next day, Zanger filed a $1-million lawsuit against Baldwin, the star of “The Hunt for Red October” and “Malice.”

“Mr. Baldwin here doesn’t look like a golden goose, but that’s how Mr. Zanger sees him,” English told reporters outside court. “This case is about money.”

The confrontation between movie star and photographer began when Zanger--who Baldwin described as “mousy” and “weird-looking”--hid under the camper shell of his pickup truck across the street from Baldwin’s Woodland Hills house last Oct. 26. From that vantage point, he began to videotape Baldwin and Basinger arriving home from a hospital with their daughter.

Baldwin spotted the camera and smeared shaving cream on the truck windows to block the lens, flushing Zanger out. The photographer testified that he came out because he feared being trapped in the truck during an attack, as had happened to him before.

But Baldwin said Zanger was trying to get footage of Basinger and the baby.

As the two exchanged words, Baldwin batted Zanger across the face, then shoved him and kicked him in the rear, witnesses said. Baldwin testified that he hit Zanger only when the photographer, a smaller man, swung his camera at Baldwin and charged. Zanger testified that Baldwin’s attack was unprovoked.

Zanger suffered a broken nose and 90% of his nasal airway remains blocked.

Baldwin’s statements immediately after the conflict prove he neither feared for his safety nor that of his family, despite the actor’s testimony that he feared Zanger was a stalker, Harkavy said.

To police, Baldwin “said ‘what I did was wrong,’ and he said it more than once,” Harkavy said. He quoted Baldwin as saying: “I hit him. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done it. I’ll pay for the damages.”

“Sounds like guilty to me,” the prosecutor added.

And as an actor who partly depends on media exposure for his livelihood, Baldwin was fair game for a photographer working from a public street, as Zanger was, Harkavy said.

“If you were to find the defendant not guilty . . . because you objected to Mr. Zanger’s profession and what he was doing that day, then you would have to ask yourself ‘Where do you draw the line?’ ” Harkavy told the eight-woman, four-man jury.

“What other professions do you object to? Can those people be battered just for doing their job?”

“The line is no violence, period,” Harkavy said. “Unless you’re doing it to protect yourself.”

The case is expected to go to the jury today after closing arguments by the defense.